No porn Lui not having job satisfaction, with his effigy being protected and all

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An honorable member of the Coffee Shop Has Just Posted the Following:

He has to get on a bicycle and a motorbike as well to get a feel of the danger people on two wheels face because motorists prefer that they go “off’’ road.

Why? Because the public wants him to feel their “pain’’ so that he can come up with a soothing balm. (In the same way that the Health minister should spend time in a C class ward, the National Development Minister should trying living in a rental flat and every minister should be surviving on the minimum wage, if we knew what that was…Gosh, we have high expectations. We want “low living’’ ministers.)

Mr Lui has inherited a “bomb’’. Nothing he does is going to get praised, not even the wonderfully-paved and beautifully-lit MCE. And while bus and train fares are being directed by the independent Public Transport Council, he’ll still have to take the heat for fare rises. SMRT and SBS Transit might not be G agencies but every stoppage will be laid at the G’s door. Likewise, the ups and downs of Singapore’s unique COE system.

The problem with transport is that we’re paying for it every day. We’re aware that the EZ link card value is going down, the IU beeps all the time, you take out card or cash whenever you leave a taxi. Not to mention queuing to board, and waiting in a traffic jam. All the daily inconveniences and cost gets on our nerves. Compare this to housing: it’s a one/two-time big ticket item. Or getting hospitalised once in a blue moon.

Our transport system has become this gigantic snarl that is difficult to untangle. And we seem to be throwing band-aids at it. Want more buses? Give you money and you go buy. Private bus companies welcome to run some routes. Calibrated penalties and rewards for being on time. Big Public Transport Fund. Tweaking COE categories so that those who can afford to own luxury cars don’t squeeze out others. So much patching up being done.

Which is why there is some merit in a massive review of transport policy that looks at all forms of transport, whether public or private. Some people want to know how the ERP and COE takings are used. Just go into the Consolidated Fund for re-distribution? That might be financially prudent but the fact is, people want to see a link.

The new fare system has been streamlined but it is still mightily complicated for the laymen. Face it. Fares are never coming down. We’ve already been alerted to a 3.1 per cent rise next year. Bus and train operations might be in the red but no one quite believes it because the companies keep reporting profits. The laymen couldn’t care if their other activities are keeping the public transport side afloat simply because they don’t view public transport as a “private’’ business.

Then there is the joke about how train stoppages are no longer news. What would be news is if we went a week or two without a single stoppage. It leads you to wonder if our entire train infrastructure needs an overhaul, even though it is not as old as other train systems elsewhere. Did someone sell us a dud in the beginning?

So 400-over people gathered at Hong Lim Park on Saturday led by the indefatigable Gilbert Goh to protest the recent fare hike. Frankly, I thought the fare hike was pretty well thought through with subsidies targeted at those who need it. Who would have thought that the train system would start acting up right after the announcement? Now people are suggesting that a new factor be thrown into the new, just-reviewed fare mix: it’s not just a question of fare increases to cover operating cost and keep pace with wage increases, but there should be a “service’’ element as well. Never mind that there are penalties for lousy service. You see how complicated it is?

So there was an effigy paraded on Saturday – and people were..... http://berthahenson.wordpress.com/20...ckless-mr-lui/


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